AD Kladivar History

Kladivar Celje is an athletic association that has won over a thousand titles of Slovenian and Yugoslav champions in all categories, contributed more than five hundred representation performances, over a hundred national records, won medals at the biggest competitions, gave 19 Olympic and one world record.

We have been active in the field of athletics in Celje, more than 100 years ago, when Matija Benčan successfully participated in the All-Star event in Prague in 1891. There, the performers also competed in the athletic lotion, in which Bencan reached the 4th place and then transferred his enthusiasm over this sport to young people in their home town. There followed fifty years of athletic activity with spacings caused by war, disobedience of city authorities for the needs of athletes, etc. The changes took place in the second half of the 20th, when athletes in Celje dealt with four sports clubs at that time, while Celje’s athletes achieved more significant results in the following years.

In 1934, two years after the regulation of the sports field, a very successful athletic section started to operate in the framework of SK Yugoslavia. The success was greatly contributed by the successes achieved by Celje athletes as members of the Primorje region of Ljubljana; In 1936, from the four national records reached by Slovenes, three were contributed by Celje. Emil Gorsek, the Balkan recorder at 800 and 1500 meters, was the first Celjan to perform at the Olympic Games in Berlin. At the EP in 1938, besides him was also Feri Pleteršek, who, as the first Yugoslavian, has passed 400 m for less than 50 s. In the years after the Second World War, during which the athletic activity in the city along the Savinja River was interrupted, it experienced its true flourishing.

The birthday of AD Kladivar was on 3 January 1950 with the founding assembly. In September of the same year they have already opened a newly built stadium, where thousands of volunteer hours have been completed. It was the first athletic stadium in Yugoslavia and the beginning of the glittering successes for Celje’s athletics.

About This Site

This is the official site of Balkan Masters Athletics Championships 2018, Celje, Slovenia.